Exploration and production of petroleum, including oil and gas, requires the use of drilling rigs to drill wells deep in subterranean formations. These wells are expensive to both drill and operate. Accordingly, much effort has been put into making well drilling a more efficient process. As well drilling becomes more efficient, testing of well control equipment has not. Accordingly, the percentage of overall rig operating time that is spent on testing of well control has proportionally increased as the percentage of overall rig operating time spent on drilling has decreased. As such, efficiencies in testing processes may contribute to large gains in rig operating efficiencies.
Conventional processes for testing well control equipment require that technicians be present on location during the installation of a blowout preventer (BOP) stack in order to torque flange bolts and pressure test the connections to validate proper makeup. In some cases, certain components of well control equipment can be tested off-line; however, this requires non-rig personnel to work simultaneously to rig operations, which means higher labor costs.
Some government regulations require pressure testing of valves well control equipment at regular intervals. For example, regulations may require pressure testing every 14 days or whenever a connection is broken. As used herein, breaking connections is intended to mean separating coupled components. Conventional systems require breaking a connection in order to perform maintenance or any time a blowout preventer stack is moved to a new wellhead. Since a blowout preventer stack and a choke manifold each may include a plurality of individual valves and seals, pressure testing may be a time-consuming and tedious activity.
The present disclosure is directed to overcoming one or more of the deficiencies of the prior art.